Abstract
Purpose
The paper frames modern slavery as a global wicked problem and aims to provide a set of international business (IB) policy recommendations for taming it. The outlined approach can also guide IB policymaking to address other kinds of wicked problems.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper that reviews existing literature on wicked problems and integrates it with an IB policy double helix framework. The paper focuseses on the role multinational enterprises (MNEs) play in moderl slavery globally, either through global value chains or within global factory modes of operation.
Findings
As a global wicked problem, modern slavery will never be solved, but it can be re-solved time and time over. Understanding the social reproduction of modern slavery can help shift the focus from labor governance and a narrow supply chain focus toward the role of transnational governance and the need to address institutional, market and organizational failures.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the gap in an overarching theory of modern slavery and systematically applies the concept of wicked problems and wickedness theory to modern slavery. Drawing on an IB policy double helix framework, the paper addresses the governance nexus between modern slavery, IB and policymaking which can in turn advance IB policy research and theory.
Subject
Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous),Business and International Management
Reference100 articles.
1. Wicked and less wicked problems: a typology and a contingency framework;Policy and Society,2017
2. Bales, K. (2023), “Testing a theory of modern slavery”, available at: https://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/events/cbss/Bales.pdf (accessed 27 May 2023).
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